Conway, South Carolina — A man convicted of killing two Conway bank employees during an armed robbery in 2017 will face state death penalty charges after his federal sentence was commuted by former President Joe Biden in December.
In court on Tuesday, 15th Circuit Solicitor Jimmy Richardson stated that in August, a Horry County grand jury indicted Brandon Council on murder and other crimes.
Council was convicted in September 2019 of the double murders of Donna Major and Katie Skeen following a three-week trial. He was condemned to death the next month in federal court, but former President Joe Biden commuted the sentences of 37 other inmates on execution row to life in December 2024.
About a month after being condemned to death, Council requested a new sentencing trial based on contradicting testimony about his objectives. A judge refused the request in December 2019.
Council waived his appearance in court and pled not guilty through his lawyers. He requested a jury trial after being charged with two counts of murder, armed robbery, entering a bank with the intent to steal, possessing a firearm while committing a violent crime, unlawful sale or delivery of a pistol, and grand larceny valued at $10,000 or more on August 13.
Council confiscated Skeen’s 2013 Chrysler 200 after he shot the women.
Richardson told reporters outside the courtroom that his office was ready to file capital punishment charges even before the Council’s federal hearings.
“Our decision is simply to safeguard the inhabitants of Horry and Georgetown County. “I have nothing to do with Washington or any of that,” Richardson stated. “This particular switch-up came, but we always prepare for anything like that.”
